Victoria Belfrey
Victoria Belfrey is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the seventh season. She is portrayed by starring cast member Gabrielle Anwar, and is the Seattle counterpart of Lady Tremaine. History Upon coming out of her office from a business meeting, Victoria is met by Jacinda, who just found out that Lucy's recital has become a charity event with an admission ticket costing $550. Jacinda begs her stepmother to be lenient, both because her paycheck won't cover the cost and that she is trying her best to get her life in order, but Victoria coldly tells her that second chances are earned, not given. Later, Victoria receives a bouquet of hyacinths along with an accompanying card from Lucy who tells her about the flowers blooming in the old community garden. She tasks Detectives Weaver and Rogers with driving Henry out of Hyperion Heights, however, after Henry ends up helping Jacinda secure a job at the charity event so she can see Lucy, Victoria demands that they do something to make him go away even if it means incriminating him on false charges. Rogers seemingly carries out an order from Weaver to implicate Henry for theft by slipping Victoria's bracelet into his apron, but Henry is exonerated when he reveals his pocket only has as keychain in it, proving Rogers disobeyed Weaver. At her office, Victoria openly criticizes Weaver for his failure to do what she asked, while Weaver expresses little care for her reprimand, stating that she neither owns or controls him and that while their goals have aligned in the past, they won't always. After Weaver walks out, Victoria is left to stew over his defiance of her. Under the pretense of demolishing the old garden and build new condos in its place, Victoria's real motive is to unearth the ground beneath it and retrieve her younger daughter Anastasia's preserved body. She learns about Lucy and Jacinda secretly exchanging letters by leaving them for each other in the wishing well, and on the same day the garden is to be decimated, she arrives at the location with the demolition team and catches Jacinda in the midst of dropping off a letter. Jacinda asks her to reconsider for Lucy's sake, but Victoria insists it's too late and simply tells her to leave or risk being buried alive. As Jacinda is collecting signatures for a petition to save the garden, Victoria promises her a tempting deal: a newly built condo for her and Lucy if she burns the petitions. Lucy, witnessing what her mother has done, protests that she would rather be apart from her than together if Jacinda is going to give up. While Jacinda is heartbroken at her daughter's reaction, Victoria barely conceals a smile at the dispute. That night, after regaining the coffin with Anastasia's body in it, Victoria takes it with her to a lower level in a warehouse, where she visits an imprisoned witch. She wants the woman's help with enacting her plans of making Lucy surrender her belief willingly as a way to resurrect Anastasia, but the witch refuses despite the latter's attempt at intimidating her. The witch cautions that Victoria may succeed in breaking Lucy's belief and reviving her daughter, but she will still have to deal with her afterward. }} Family ---- Trivia Production Notes= Production Notes *According to Gabrielle Anwar, Victoria is Lady Tremaine but in a contemporary world. She also added that "she's still using the same chronic manipulations and desperately unkind puppeteering of her stepchild in the shape of materialism and physical control of her life and her daughter's life".http://ew.com/tv/2017/10/02/once-upon-time-gabrielle-anwar-lady-tremaine/ |-|Cultural References= Popular Culture *The scene where Victoria enters the Belfrey Towers in "Hyperion Heights" is a homage to the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, in which Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly enters the Runway building in a similar way. **Glenn Close's Cruella DeVil has also a similar scene and entrance in the live-action film 101 Dalmatians. Appearances See Also *Belfrey Towers References fr:Victoria Belfrey nl:Boze Stiefmoeder Category:Female Characters Category:Season Seven Characters Category:Once Upon a Time Characters